Originally published January 15, 2015. Updated April 13, 2018.
Jessie Robertson reviews Wytches #3…
A parent’s worst nightmare: a beloved child lost in the woods. Behind the trees lurk horrors, and the brush conceals atrocity. No matter how desperate the search, understand that your prayers will fall on deaf ears. There is no escape from the Wytches.
The key components of a successful comic book is the writing and the art. It’s a two-pronged attack, a joint effort, a dynamic duo if you will. The guidelines of these stringent requirements has changed over the near century of comic book’ existence. Every reader can say for themselves if a particular combination of writer-artist is working when they are reading a book; it runs the gamet of tastes as well. Wytches #1 and #2 is going back to printing; this is a sign many people like this combination.
Scott Snyder has been toiling away on Batman, to massive sucess for several years now, telling rich, layered tales of his early days in Gotham, showing his process to grow into the dark anti-hero loved by the world around. He brings that same multi-faceted story approach to this book, uncovering demonic detail in slow strides, pivoting back and forth from a child’s point of view to an adults. It’s really well done; the characters, despite the strange happenings taking hold of their lives, are very relatable, because a the core you have a teenager struggling to fit in, to find common ground with her parents, and you have adults who have their own problems, issues, trying not to be seen as the bad guys but maintain their closeness to their child. I, myself, am married with one daughter (only six) but I can identify with some of the issues here, which is a strength for me when reading this.
As good and prolific as Snyder tends to be, it’s Jocks’ disturbing painted over images in this issue that are the show stealer (and have been over the course of this series.) So much of his drawings are out of perspective, fuzzy, hazy, even looking clawed at by some monster’s talons, but the dark, colorful overlay that rests on every page of this issue is like a fanged horror waiting behind a tree, watching your every move; it’s the visual equivalent of Jason Vorhees’ ominous “Ki Ki Ki Ha Ha Ha.” I love it with the part of myself that wants to be scared shitless. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but the story could suffer badly and Jock’s demented stylings would bring me back month after month.
Jessie Robertson is a contributing writer who loves all things comic books. He currently has one novel on Amazon.com, exploring people able to consciously do what they want in dreams. Yeah, sounds good right? Feel free to email him anything, questions, comments, critiques or Lost trivia at phdreamer81@yahoo.com.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2vq4CudKRk&list=PL18yMRIfoszFJHnpNzqHh6gswQ0Srpi5E&feature=player_embedded
